Taking the Hai Van to Hoi An [Vietnam]
From Ho Chi Minh City, we boarded a plane to Hue. As soon as we landed, we beelined over to a place called "Motorvina," as recommended by our friend and housemate Bonnie. We had big plans to make our way down the Hai Van Pass BY OURSELVES — a highly ambitious undertaking that would take all day (at best). Jenny was at the helm, while I sat behind her to navigate (a wise choice, per Rosey and Tam's take on my driving skills).
The Hai Van Pass
Our first stop was highly unusual and a bit off the beaten track: the An Bang City of Tombs! This place was a complete ghost town (figuratively and possibly literally) and SO COOL. There were these ornate, colourful tombs as far as the eye could see.
We stopped for sugar cane juice on the side of the road, which was only $0.25 for two cups — up to 4x cheaper than the stuff we'd found in the city. Unfortunately, we were racing against the clock and opted to skip lunch dinner, and a bunch of other popular tourist stops along the way like the Elephant Springs. If you do the Hai Van Pass, I'd recommend starting as early as possible. We were pushing it (leaving around noon) based on the time our flight arrived.
We DID make a stop at Lang Co beach though. There were some nice resorts in this area, so another option to do a more leisurely Hai Van Pass tour would be to stay overnight here. You actually have to pay to get into the resorts, but we were dying for a bathroom break and convinced a security guard to let us in (free of charge!) with the help of Google Translate and text-to-speech technology.
The Hai Van Pass is SO extreme. Think blind turns, sometimes unpaved paths, uphill climbs, and lots of trucks blowing soot directly into our faces. We were practically the only all-girl motorbike team on the road, and people sometimes pointed at us with a laugh. Jenny is the TRUE MVP champion for driving both of us on her back for seven hours straight!
We made our way to the relatively big city of Da Nang (famed for this hand bridge), but ultimately zipped through it since it felt like a regular big city... and the sun was already starting to set. We DID stop by the "Marble Mountains" though and hustled our way up a bunch of steps to see a temple. There wasn't much of a view, but it was cool to see marble statues everywhere. This place would probably be more intriguing if you were in the market to purchase marble wares.
Well into the evening, we finally made it to Hoi An, where we traded in our motorbike for human-powered bicycles.
Serene Hoi An
Hoi An is an adorable and effervescent town. It feels like it is perpetually celebrating a mid-autumn lantern festival. We even purchased paper lanterns and set them free to float over the water.
We browsed vibrant shops, and stumbled upon a custom swimsuit store called "Yellow Sun." We purchased tailor-made swimsuits for $30, ready for pick-up the following day. Admittedly, the quality wasn't the highest — my swimsuit top ended up being a bit bigger than desired, but that was mainly due to the style I chose.
We ended off the night by finally eating our first meal of the day (aka more pho for me!). I also purchased strawberry rolled ice cream from a literal 6-year-old. He was so fast and skilled already, although he made a few mistakes which he compensated for with some adorable candy and sprinkles. Not exactly my taste, but I'm sure to the kid, he was giving us exactly what he would've liked to eat.
At this point, I clearly went a little loopy and chose to mix a gummy alligator from my rolled ice cream into the pho. I think the rationale was that the pho broth looked like... a swamp?
Cham-cham-cham?
Our next adventure was a day trip to the Cham Islands to try diving for the first time! To be honest, I did not have the best time with this excursion. I found it super painful to equalize, and evidently didn't do it properly because I got a nosebleed.
I think I understand the appeal of diving though — not to sound like a horoscope nut, but the water has always grounded me (it's because I'm a cancer! Ok I'll stop). It feels like a whole other world below the surface. We had perfect visibility underwater, since it was a super sunny day. The boat excursion included a stop for lunch on Cham Island, and nothing compares to chilling on hammocks with ice-cold popsicles after an exhausting day at sea.
However, it must be said that this excursion was totally sketchy and unsafe. If I were to do it again, I would've just snorkeled (which I opted to do at the second dive location and much preferred). Jenny and I aren't PADI-certified, so we were quite literally thrown to the sharks (har har).
Moreover, a group of Chinese tourists who didn't know how to swim were on the boat with us. Their hotel concierge booked a tour for them, and they had no idea what they were getting into! These dudes also didn't understand English, so they had no way of understanding the safety instructions. Well... almost no way. Jenny (who's fluent in Mandarin) saved the day and translated all the instructions for the Chinese tour group!
This paid dividends later in the day, as these tourists turned out to be wealthy Chinese businessmen who treated us to dinner (for authentic Bun Bo Hue), a gondola ride on the river, and more paper lanterns—at a much lower price than we purchased the day prior. Ah, so that's how negotiations should be done. We ended the night by munching on some street food dessert (tofu and grass jelly, yum!).